Garment hanger manufacturers and users, of whom the latter are primarily clothing retailers, are today being forced by competitive pressures to lower the cost of hangers, both in a per part manufactured cost sense and in an administrative and accounting sense. Currently hanger manufacturers, and retailers, use several different sizes of what is essentially the same hanger design to accommodate the differences in sizes in garments which are to be displayed for the consumer. Thus a pair of girl's slacks or a girl's skirt is best presented on a hanger of relatively short length, such as about an eight inch hanger, a pair of mens' slacks or a ladies' skirt are best presented on a slightly larger hanger of about ten inches, and big mens' slacks require an even larger hanger, of, for example, about twelve inches. As a consequence the garment hanger manufacturer must produce three different sizes of hangers and the garment manufacturer must stock, and maintain an inventory watch on, three different sizes of hangers. At the retail level, hangers are often saved at the check out counter or cash register and thus either three separate bins must be maintained for each size of hanger, or, if a single bin is used, time consuming hand labor must be employed later to sort the different size hangers for re-use in the store, or, with increasing frequency at the present time, returned to a garment hanger manufacturer for recycling. Should the store participate in recycling, the cost and nuisance of inventorying three separate sizes of hangers accompanies the physical movement of the hangers from the store to the garment hanger manufacturer (who is the primary party responsible for recycling), and then to the garment manufacturer. The multiple handling steps involved in using and tracking three separate hanger sizes for the same hanger design is costly and time consuming.
If a single hanger could accommodate garments which today require three, or more, separate sizes of hangers, all of the foregoing processing steps and costs would be avoided. Indeed, if only a single size hanger could be used, the need to count and tally units of hangers could be entirely dispensed with; hangers could be handled in bulk by weight alone, the accuracy of a count being based on weight of a standard size shipping container would be entirely adequate for the inventory and cost accounting purposes of the garment manufacturer, the garment hanger manufacturer and the retailer.